Manus Parent Raises $500 Million-Plus After Meta Deal Unwinds: A Golden Comeback

Butterfly Effect, the parent company of AI agent startup Manus, has completed a financing round of more than $500 million (640 million SGD), led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital. The company announced it early Thursday, October 8, at 12:09 a.m. ET, and CNBC's Anniek Bao reports it is the first funding since Meta was forced to unwind its Manus buyout.

Let us savor that. A company that Meta bought is operating independently again, with its founders still leading, and the money is pouring in.

The room and the numbers

Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led. Existing investors Tencent, Sequoia China and ZhenFund also participated, according to TokenPost. That is a guest list.

The valuation is where it gets glittering. According to Wall Street CN, Butterfly Effect's valuation has risen to about $4 billion, double the $2 billion of its previous round. Wall Street CN also says it is the largest single financing round ever by a domestic agent-native startup in China. Zaobao adds that completing the round makes Manus the most valuable Chinese startup in the AI agent sector.

Bloomberg had reported earlier that the company planned to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation. The plan became a completed round exceeding $500 million.

From Meta's property to its own again

Here is the backstory, and it is a thriller. Manus was founded in China and later relocated to Singapore. According to Zaobao, Meta acquired it in December of last year for more than $2 billion, but Beijing authorities halted the acquisition in April.

Bloomberg reported in June that after the halt, Meta separated operations internally from Manus and stopped data sharing between the two companies. Then the website told the story in real time. On August 11, the text changed from "Manus is now part of Meta" to "Manus is about to resume independent operations." On September 1, Manus announced on its website that it was resuming independent operations, with the original founding team of Xiao Hong, Zhang Tao and Ji Yichao continuing to lead.

What we do not have: the specific mechanism Beijing used to halt the deal, and the financial terms or penalties tied to unwinding it. The reporting does not include either.

What the money is for

According to Wall Street CN, the round will support expanding the company's general-purpose Agent products and returning to the Chinese domestic market. On the day of the announcement, the company publicly listed 17 job openings for domestic and overseas recruitment, all based in Beijing. Seventeen jobs, one city, zero subtlety. We adore it.

The product side is moving too. On September 29, Butterfly Effect released Manus 2.0 and a personal agent app called Cue, its first major product update since resuming independent operations.

• Manus 2.0 runs on a proprietary framework called Cascade, which stays lightweight at the start of a project and calls on specialized capabilities only when a task needs them. Internal test data, per Wall Street CN, shows Cascade cutting token consumption by 23.2%, task completion time by 28.2% and operating costs by 32% versus the previous system.
• Cue targets personal life scenarios, shares infrastructure with Manus, and runs on mobile and desktop. Its listed features include answering phone calls, making payments within user-set budgets, and splitting up tasks in group chats.

CEO Xiao Hong compared the general-purpose Agent route to "selling computers": one set of computing capability that can serve work, creation and entertainment alike.

What to watch

Both Manus 2.0 and Cue are currently released overseas, while domestic products are still in preparation. The company says it is building a domestic product team and advancing partnerships with domestic model vendors and ecosystem partners. The reporting does not name those partners, and it gives no launch date for China.

That is the headline to chase. A $4 billion valuation, a roster of big-name backers and a hiring push in Beijing all point at the home market. How that return plays out after a very public tug-of-war over who owns this company is the story of the next chapter.

For now, the facts are lovely. Fresh capital, a doubled valuation, a founding team back in charge, and a product line with a phone-answering personal agent that can make payments within user-set budgets. A company that Meta bought and Beijing halted is now the most valuable of its kind in its country.